Anniversaries
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Births: Cuthbert Collingwood, first Baron, Admiral, 1750; August Muhling, organist and composer, 1786; Jean-Louis-Andre-Theodore Gericault, painter, 1791; Thomas Sidney Cooper, painter, 1803; Marius-Pierre-Audran, singer and composer, 1816; John Sims Reeves, tenor, 1818; Charles Bradlaugh, politician and social reformer, 1833; Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, physiologist, 1849; Rosa Lewis, cook and hotelier, 1867; Sir Barnes Wallis, airship and bomb designer, 1887; Thomas Stearns Eliot, poet and playwright, 1888; Martin Heidegger, philosopher, 1889; George Gershwin (Jacob Gershvin), composer, 1898.
Deaths: Bishop Lancelot Andrewes, theologian, 1626; Daniel Boone, frontiersman, 1820; Robert Anderson, poet, 1833; Thomas Clarkson, anti-slavery campaigner, 1846; Hermann Grassmann, mathematician, 1877; Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo), writer on Japan, 1904; Prince Ito of Japan, assassinated 1909; James Keir Hardie, Labour party pioneer, 1915; George Simnel, philosopher, 1918; Adelina (Adela Juana Maria) Patti (Baroness Rolf Cederstrom), singer, 1919; William Henry Davies, poet, 1940; Prebendary Wilson Carlile, founder of the Church Army, 1942; Bela Bartok, composer, 1945; Hugh John Lofting, author and creator of 'Dr Dolittle', 1947; Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, Cingalese prime minister, after being shot on the previous day, 1959; Peter Dawson, bass- baritone, 1961.
On this day: the Parthenon and the Propyleiea were destroyed when the Venetians bombarded Athens, 1687; John Jay became the first Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, 1789; the Holy Alliance was concluded between the Russian and Austrian emperors and the King of Prussia, 1815; the British Association for the Advancement of Science was founded, 1831; the first talking machine for playing discs (the gramophone) was patented by Emile Berliner, a German immigrant in the US, 1887; New Zealand became a Dominion, 1907; the first regular airmail service from Hendon to Windsor ended, 1911; the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne began, 1918; Lord Rothermere became the principal proprietor of the Daily Mail and its associated newspapers, 1922; the liner Queen Mary was launched by Queen Mary herself, 1934; in Britain, sugar rationing was ended, 1953.
Today is the Feast Day of St Colman of Lann Elo, Saints Cosmas and Damian, St John of Meda, St Nilus of Rossano and St Teresa Couderc.
TOMORROW
Births: St Alfonso Maria dei Liguori, theologian, 1696; Samuel Adams, American revolutionary leader, 1722; George Cruikshank, illustrator and caricaturist, 1792; Paul-Henri-Corentin Feval, novelist, 1817; Adolf Kottlitz, violinist and composer, 1820; Henri Frederic Amiel, poet and philosopher, 1821; Heinrich Adolf Wollenhaupt, pianist and composer, 1827; Alfred Thayer Mahan, admiral and naval historian, 1840; Thomas Nast, cartoonist and illustrator, 1840; Francis William Lauderdale Adams, poet, 1862; Louis Botha, first prime minister of South Africa, 1862; Rosa Lewis, (Rosa Ovenden), hotelier, 1867; Cyril Meir Scott, composer, 1879; Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, leader and journalist, 1888; George Raft, actor, 1895; Vincent Miller Youmans, composer, 1898; Sir William Empson, poet and critic, 1906; Sir Martin Ryle, Astronomer Royal, 1918.
Deaths: William of Wykeham, bishop and founder of Winchester College and New College, Oxford, 1404; Pope Innocent XII, 1700; Laurence Eusden, poet, 1730; Ivan Aleksandrovich Goncharov, novelist and travel writer, 1891; Remy de Gourmont, writer, 1915; Hilaire- Germain-Edgar Degas, painter, 1917; Engelbert Humperdinck, composer, 1921; Cherry Kearton, naturalist, author and photographer, 1940; Aimee Semple McPherson, evangelist, 1944; Aristide Maillol, painter and sculptor, 1944; Gerald Finzi, composer, 1956; Clara Bow, actress - the 'It' girl, 1965; Sir Norman Brookes, tennis champion, 1968; Dame Gracie Fields, singer and entertainer, 1979.
On this day: the Society of Jesus was founded, 1540; James Franklin published the first issue of The Rhode Island Gazette, 1727; the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle started, 1818; the first passenger railway opened between Stockton and Darlington, 1826; Mount Ararat was climbed for the first time, 1830; the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Alliance was signed, 1906; Constantine I abdicated as King of Greece, 1923; the liner Queen Elizabeth was launched by Queen Elizabeth, now the Queen Mother, 1938; Hitler announced his intention to annex the Sudetenland, 1939; Warsaw surrendered to the German forces, 1939; the first London performance of the musical Hair was presented, 1968.
Tomorrow is the Feast Day of St Barrog or Barnoch, St Elzear of Sabran and St Vincent de Paul.
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